Zurich, June 10

Started this morning heading out to Rhinefalls,since it was raining figured might as well see something that might get me wet. It was about 1:15 to the train station in Neuhaus am Rhinefalls, which is on the north side of the Rhine. About a 1.5 km walk right next to the Rhine takes you down to the falls - and with any large falls you hear it well before you see it. The area is in the midst of a very wet spring (see flooding news in Germany), so the falls have twice as much water as they normally do heading over it. Thanks to Heather from Arizona, I am actually in this photo!

After the little boat trip by the foot of the falls, walked back up to the top, crossed the rail bridge to the south side and Schloss Laufen. A little museum about the history of the castle, a bit jumbled as it went by impressions and views from diaries, so there was no linearity to it. However, each chair was representative of an era, and had information as to who would have used that chair type, which I found more interesting. Walked down the point for the view from the south side - a much closer viewpoint! The noise and volume of water is huge. An elevator ride back up to the castle (included in ticket!) and I walked along the south side of the river back to the bridge at the rail station. This side is more of a hiking/mountain biking trail, and due to the way the river curves is a 2 km trek back.

Headed back to Zurich with the intent of seeing the Swiss National Museum, but since it's actually closed on Mondays, have put that off to do tomorrow morning before getting on the train to go to Davos - good thing it's tight next to the train station. So, instead I stopped at the Coop grocery and got sunscreen and a yogurt - took the tram back down to the lake, had a snack,at the lakeshore. Since I don't think you should eat two day old bread in Europe, I fed the remainder of the rolls to the swans- they were pretty aggressive when feeding, but also were intelligent enough they knew when I had no more!

After, took the tram #6 from one end to the other - Bahnhof Enge to the Zoo. Went from the edge of the lake to the top of the opposite hill by the University and Hospital complex. Actually a really good way to see a bunch of different neighborhoods. Did not go to the zoo itself (cost and it was closing within an hour), but it turns out the FIFA world headquarters are right there- soi walked down to the gates, looked at the fields and headed back, to reverse the journey.